Vegetal protein hydrolysates reduce the yield losses in off-season crops under combined heat and drought stress.

To deal with the vagaries of climate change, it is essential to develop climate-resilient agricultural practices, which improve crop productivity, and ensure food security. The impacts of high temperature and water deficit stress conditions pose serious challenges to a sustainable crop production. Several adaptation measures are practiced globally to address these challenges and among these altering the crop's typical growing season is one of the key management practices. Application of biostimulants and other growth hormones helps in compensating yield losses under abiotic stress significantly. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the influence of vegetal protein hydrolysate based biostimulant to reduce the yield losses of off-season crops (soybean and chilli in summer and chickpea in early Kharif) when the temperature was higher than the regular season under water deficit stress conditions. The experiments were carried out with the foliar application of different protein hydrolysates (PHs) concentrations. The study revealed that the application of PHs significantly improved the membrane stability index, relative water content, total chlorophyll and proline content of leaves. Consequently, it led to an increase in the number of pods in soybean and chickpea, and fruits in chilli, leading to improved yields when plants were treated with the appropriate amount of PHs. Compared to untreated plants, PHs helped improve the efficiency of PS-II with significantly high photochemical efficiency (QYmax) even at higher excised leaf water loss or reduction in loss of relative water content. This study concluded that foliar application of PHs at 4, 2, and 6 ml L-1 can be beneficial for soybean, chickpea and chilli, which exhibited 17, 30, and 25% yield improvement respectively, over the untreated plants under water deficit stress. It is suggested that the benefits of PHs can be realized in soybean, chickpea and chilli under high temperature and water deficit stress. Therefore, vegetal PHs may be able to assist farmers in arid regions for boosting their income by raising market value and decreasing production barriers during the off-season. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-023-01334-4.

Long-term response of dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) to transformed rooting zone of a shallow soil improving yield, storage quality and profitability in a drought prone semi-arid agro-ecosystem.

Agricultural crops especially fruit trees are constrained by edaphic stresses in shallow soils with low water retention and poor fertility. Therefore, interventions of shifting to trench planting for better root anchorage and replacing the filling soil were evaluated for 8 years in dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) cultivated in Deccan Plateau of peninsular India. When averaged for last 5-years, 44 % higher fruit yield (18.2 ± 1.0 Mg ha-1) was harvested from trees planted in trenches filled with 1:1 mixture (T-mixed) of native soil (loamy sand with 26.7 % stones (>2mm), field capacity, FC 0.20 cm3 cm-3; organic carbon, OC 0.17 %; Av-N 54.6 kg ha-1) and a black soil (clay 54.4 %; FC 0.42 cm3 cm-3; OC 0.70 %; Av-N 157.1 kg ha-1) than the recommended pit planting (12.4 ± 1.2 Mg ha-1). Improvements in fruit yields with trenches filled with black (T-black) and native (T-native) soil were 32 and 13 %, respectively. Yield losses (total- marketable yield) were reduced by 40, 20 and 18 % over pit method with T-mixed, T-black and T-native soil, respectively. Marketable quality attributes like fruit weight, fruit size metrics and pulp/peel content were further improved under T-mixed soil. Accumulation of total soluble solids (TSS), sugar content, phenolic and flavonoid compounds were higher in fruits from T-native soil. During storage, fruits from T-native soil and pit planting exhibited minimum physiological weight loss and retained more firmness, TSS, sugars, titratable acidity, phenolic-flavonoids contents, FARP and DPPH activities. T-mixed soil provided better hydrozone and nutrients for resilience of fruit plants while protecting from aeration problems envisaged in poorly drained black soils. With B:C ratio (1.85) and lower payback period (4-years), T-mixed soil showed superior economic viability. Therefore, soil management module of planting in trenches filled-in with mixture of native and black soils can be recommended to boost productivity of fruits from shallow soils under water scarce degraded regions without penalising agro-ecosystem.

Review of wheat improvement for waterlogging tolerance in Australia and India: the importance of anaerobiosis and element toxicities associated with different soils.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The lack of knowledge about key traits in field environments is a major constraint to germplasm improvement and crop management because waterlogging-prone environments are highly diverse and complex, and the mechanisms of tolerance to waterlogging include a large range of traits. A model is proposed that waterlogging tolerance is a product of tolerance to anaerobiosis and high microelement concentrations. This is further evaluated with the aim of prioritizing traits required for waterlogging tolerance of wheat in the field. METHODS: Waterlogging tolerance mechanisms of wheat are evaluated in a range of diverse environments through a review of past research in Australia and India; this includes selected soils and plant data, including plant growth under waterlogged and drained conditions in different environments. Measurements focus on changes in redox potential and concentrations of diverse elements in soils and plants during waterlogging. KEY RESULTS: (a) Waterlogging tolerance of wheat in one location often does not relate to another, and (b) element toxicities are often a major constraint in waterlogged environments. Important element toxicities in different soils during waterlogging include Mn, Fe, Na, Al and B. This is the first time that Al and B toxicities have been indicated for wheat in waterlogged soils in India. These results support and extend the well-known interactions of salinity/Na and waterlogging/hypoxia tolerance. CONCLUSIONS: Diverse element toxicities (or deficiencies) that are exacerbated during waterlogging are proposed as a major reason why waterlogging tolerance at one site is often not replicated at another. Recommendations for germplasm improvement for waterlogging tolerance include use of inductively coupled plasma analyses of soils and plants.

miR-25 Modulates Invasiveness and Dissemination of Human Prostate Cancer Cells via Regulation of αv- and α6-Integrin Expression.

Altered microRNA (miRNA; miR) expression is associated with tumor formation and progression of various solid cancers. A major challenge in miRNA expression profiling of bulk tumors is represented by the heterogeneity of the subpopulations of cells that constitute the organ, as well as the tumor tissue. Here, we analyzed the expression of miRNAs in a subpopulation of epithelial stem/progenitor-like cells in human prostate cancer [prostate cancer stem cell (PCSC)] and compared their expression profile to more differentiated cancer cells. In both cell lines and clinical prostate cancer specimens, we identified that miR-25 expression in PCSCs was low/absent and steadily increased during their differentiation into cells with a luminal epithelial phenotype. Functional studies revealed that overexpression of miR-25 in prostate cancer cell lines and selected subpopulation of highly metastatic and tumorigenic cells (ALDH(high)) strongly affected the invasive cytoskeleton, causing reduced migration in vitro and metastasis via attenuation of extravasation in vivo. Here, we show, for the first time, that miR-25 can act as a tumor suppressor in highly metastatic PCSCs by direct functional interaction with the 3'-untranslated regions of proinvasive αv- and α6-integrins. Taken together, our observations suggest that miR-25 is a key regulator of invasiveness in human prostate cancer through its direct interactions with αv- and α6-integrin expression.